In the Afterlife
by assholic-artist
Summary: After James and Lily died, how would they react to certain events in their son's life? This story will tell you all.
1. Prologue

Pop

James Potter found himself lying on the ground. The ground was soft, and the surounding was bright. But he remembered that he was in his house's hallway, on Hallowe'en night, 1981. But then he was somewhere else.

He stood up, straighten his clothes, and just to found out his glasses were held tightly in his palm. Without the glasses, the image of where he was standing was quite blury. He put on his glasses and finally managed to see the suroundings.

He was inside his very own bedroom, but it seemed a little bit different: brighter and cleaner. He looked out the window and saw the sun was shining. He then saw a gigantic billboard, which wrote:

"Welcome to the Wizarding Afterlife"

He froze for a few seconds. Then he realized: He was dead.

"Shit. I'm... dead! I'm actually dead. It was so fast and painless... I died... But why?"

James tried to recall the moment before his death. He remembered seeing a snake-like face, pale and montrous. He remembered shouting out loud to his wife to protect his baby son from the wizard - no, he's no human, he's a monster. He remembered the monster bursted into his house, and he was wandless. The monster was cackling madly, the blood red eyes staring at him. The monster held his wand up, and there came a jet of green light hit squarely on James' chest...

He swore loudly, thinking about his wife and his one-year-old son strugling with You-know-who. He didn't want them to get here with him, too. He wanted them to live, to have the happy life they should have. He screamed internally, getting furious with himself. He cursed the stupid prophecy, cursed Voldemort, and cursed himself for being such a useless husband and father.

But his thought was interupted by the sound of a Pop.

James crossed his fingers, whishing it's not his wife or son, or he's going to regret until his life ends... Wait... His life had already ended. He slightly grinned with the thought, but the other negative thoughts flowed back into his mind.

James turned around, just to see a young woman with flaming red hair slowly standing up from the floor in confusion.

"Lily?", asked James, his voice trembling.

"James?", the woman questioned surprisingly.

"No... This can not happening... Please no... Please say this is not real... Please say you are not dead...", James muttered hopelessly, his lips barely opened. He couldn't believe Lily Potter is dead. He couldn't believe his wife is dead. It seemed that he could break down any momment.

Lily walked towards James and hugged him tightly, her last tears were still tripping on her graceful face.

"We can only hope for the best, James... I tried... but...", sobbed Lily painfully. James ran his fingers through her red locks, trying to calm her down.

"It's not your fault that we're here. It's not anyone's fault. You tried your best, I know that, you always did.", wispered James into Lily's ears. He kissed her forehead lightly before she stopped sobbing.

Ding!

The couple broke off from the hug and looked towards the source of the sound. A screen lit up and on it, there was Harry Potter, crying in his crib.

And there stood the Dark Lord, aiming his wand at Harry.

"You-know-who? That You-know-bitch is not going to send my son here!", Lily went mad, and James had to stop her before she smashed the screen into pieces.

"This is the connection to the living world, you can not break it, Lil! We can watch everything we want to watch from here...", James touched the screen, but still piercing his eyes onto Voldemort's hideous face. He was sweating madly, because he knew what would come next. The Dark Lord was going to kill his son.

"No! NO!", bellowed Lily, and she started crying again. She screamed in horror, begging and holding James as tight as she could. No one wants to see their only son to die.

James was speechless. He froze and he broke down from all the presures. He felt hopeless, but he knew there was nothing he could do.

They both closed their eyes, Lily still sobbing, James still speechless, and -

"Avada Kedavra."

James' ears were buzzing, the sounds he heard seemed unclear after Voldemort cried out the Killing curse. He still could hear Lily sobbing, and himself easing her.

James' vision was also blured. Even when the glasses were still on his face, his eyes seemed to stop working. He found himself grasping Lily more tightly than ever after he saw the green jet of light fired out from Voldemort's wand...

And then there came a scream.

His eyes focused again, and his ears stopped buzzing.

And he saw Voldemort vanishing. He saw the wall in Harry's room broke down. He saw the lightnig scar on Harry's forehead.

"Lily. Lily.", James shook Lily's shoulders. She opened her eyes, which was all red from all the crying.

"J... James? Harry is arrived, isn't it?", Lily said weakly in tears.

"He won't."

Lily turned around and looked at the screen.

And she saw Harry's scar, too.


	2. Chapter One

"Damn! Damn damn damn! This is NOT happening!"

James was furious. He left his bedroom and stormed away to the living room on the ground floor.

Lily was down the kitchen making some calming tea for James, as he was swearing all the morning. That day, James woke up just to find out that Sirius was put into Azkaban, when the real criminal was Peter. He felt betrayed by Peter, guilty for doubting Remus, and angry to see innocent Sirius get caught.

"Common' James, drink some tea. It would help you.", Lily brought a tray of tea into the loving room and sat down beside James on the sofa, her face showed sympathy for him.

James didn't reply straight away. His eyes were still poercing on the screen, which was showing Sirius suffering in his cell in Azkaban. The dementors were drifted in the hallway and sucking all of the happiness everywhere. Lily touched James' shoulder, a tear tripped down her face. She was very worried for James recently. Since Hagrid delivered baby Harry to Dumbledore and McGonagall, and the Headmaster put him in front of the Dursley's household's doorway, James started being in a bad mood everyday. And that very day, when Peter escaped in his animagus form, James couldn't stand anymore. He wished he could somehow connect to the living world, but he couldn't. He didn't choose to be a ghost, he chose to move on. James wasn't angry because he was killed, he was angry because now everyone else must suffer, from his best friend to his very son. He just wanted to have a small, happy family, but a stupid prophecy ruined it all. And his son now stucks with a destiny to be the Chosen One, to be the Boy Who Lived.

"We're dead. Dead people don't need to drink tea.", James grunted. But he still took the tea cup and drank until the last drop.

"James, I know this is not a good news, but we can't do anything, we're dead, like you said. But we can keep watching, and follow Harry in his journey of his life. This will be like a long, long movie, right?", said Lily gently, and she gave James a sympathetic, soothing smile.

"No! You don't understand, Lily! I want to present in Harry's life, but now we are just a vague memory. We are not even sure if he remember us!", James pinched his nose, feeling frustrated.

"So we have to make sure we're still a part of his life by watching him from distance if we can not watch at close."

James stared at Lily, then he sighed.

"You are right. We can take care of him."

"And we're doing this together."

Lily and James looked into eachother's eyes, and they smiled. And they know, things were going to settle down from then.


End file.
